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"Not for long."

Jitokeza had been thinking about his newest friend for a little while, he knew she hadn't found a name yet and it had got him thinking about his own name. His name had been given to him because of what following Kiwimbi here had meant for him, what it had been for the shy and nervous lion to go from one crowded pride to a smaller but still large and social pride. He was supposed to be less shy, and losing Kiwi had taken him a couple steps back but he enjoyed spending time with Anjali and had an unusually outgoing idea he intended to follow through on.

He had a name for her.

"Good morning," he added, stepping out from the trees and around to where she watch the sunrise, "I wondered if I'd find you out here, you're such an early bird."

Taking her shifting as an invitation, he boldly took a seat beside her- something he might have hesitated more on normally. It helped that she was so encouraging, even just by being herself. He smiled at her.

"I was just thinking about some things, thought I might find you out here," he said, glancing over to her, "Getting kind of predictable, I think."

"True," he agreed. That had been what he wanted, to find Anjali- this just helped him decide. And now he did, he just had to explain his full plan to Anjali and hope she was OK with it- but the provisionaries frequently got names from members of the pride, could she really argue if he gave her a name?

"Nah, just trying to decide which idea I liked best for your name," he said brightly. It was hard to do it this way but he thought he was doing ok, he barely stammered there at all.

"Well, I assumed that was what you were mumbling about just before I showed up but I'm not just making something up now," he said, almost defensively. He was trying to be helpful but it still felt kind of silly, naming was a lot easier when they were cubs- cubs didn't keep their names here, much less pressure to pick something meaningful.

"But no, I don't read minds," he added.

"It's not really about losing your past," he said, surprised by the way she had voiced her concerns. Mkaa had been unsettled by the idea of giving up his name, but he hadn't grown up here, it'd felt like giving up part of his identity- which corresponded to Anjali's worries, if you thought about it. But he, Jitokeza, knew better.

"It's all about your past, that's what makes you who you are and that's what matters," he said, pausing thoughtfully before continuing, "I didn't grow up here, I was nervous changing my name because it was never supposed to be something that you just change for me, and it was the last thing I had connecting me to where I came from, since I up and left to come here. My name means 'emerge' and it was given to me because .. something about being braver and really being myself.."

As the story wound down to the personal story of what his name was really about, he stammered and trailed off. If he hadn't been so shy and sheltered before he came here, it wouldn't have made sense. He had come a long way to get where he had been then, and he was still going, in that sense it was almost a prediction for the future.

Jitokeza never really heard many explain where their names came from, and he was sure some of them were much more personal and meaningful than his. His name was short, simple and to the point- it was even a verb, it was hard to really miss the point. But then.. that made it a good example, right?

"It's always going to be weirder for us, we didn't grow up here," he commented. It hadn't been weird meeting Kiwi as Kiwi and then having her change her name to Maji, she had still been a new friend, she hadn't had the time to develop as Kiwi in his mind. Faaiza and Utamu were so excited before they had been sent off, it was perfectly normal and even exciting to them.. but for him, it would still be strange.

"But there's no way you can't handle it if I could do it," he agreed, "And maybe your new name won't rhyme with any particularly good adjectives but it won't change that much unless you want it to."

"We can find a new one, if you like," he suggested, "An adjective, I mean, but I don't know how easy that'll be."

They hadn't gotten around to the name he had for her just yet but it was still there in his mind, but this part of the conversation was important. She had to be ready- or so he thought, anyway. The cubs were approached at random, very suddenly, to go find a new name.. but this wasn't the same, like they'd already discussed.

"Hmm."